Hart To Run For President In 1988, Aides Believe

WASHINGTON — For Gary Hart's closest advisers, the guessing game is over as to whether or not the senator will run again for president.

The advisers believe Hart, D-Colo., will forgo a third term in the U.S. Senate and devote his energies to running for president in 1988.

''I told him that I already thought he had laid out the next presidential race in his mind,'' said Tom Hoog, a businessman and confidant of Hart. ''When I tell him that he just grins.''

A grin is the only response Hart gives his friends these days because he continues to say, publicly and privately, that he has not reached a decision. In thinking about the Senate in 1986 or the presidency in 1988, Hart's aides have repeatedly weighed a number of considerations. Taken in sum, these factors point to Hart leaving the Senate.

The considerations include:

-- Another try for the presidency. It is a known that Hart wants to be president and that he will run in 1988, barring an unforeseen diversion.

Hart, in fact, has not stopped running. Outside his Senate work, Hart has been traveling the country nearly full time, granting interviews, campaigning for local Democratic candidates or parties and raising money to pay off the bill from his 1984 race.

Most of Hart's advisers view a Senate re-election race in the context of another presidential race: Does another Senate campaign help or hurt? Most think it might hurt.

-- Money. Hart's future is colored by the red ink of his last presidential campaign. Aides boasted that he would have his debt of more than $3 million paid off by mid-October, but this is not likely.

Hart's advisers believe it would be difficult for him to pay off his 1984 debt, then raise the $2 million to $3 million it would take to finance a Senate campaign and quickly begin raising millions for another presidential campaign.

-- Losing. Although Hart and his supporters believe he could easily defeat Rep. Ken Kramer, R-Colorado Springs, who is favored to win the Republican nomination for the Senate, there remains the chance of Hart losing, something that would tarnish his chances for president.